Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has secured $100,000 for two community-based non-profit organizations, Mystic River Watershed Association and Everett Community Growers, Inc., to work with each other and community members to address air quality problems in Everett.
This funding was part of a settlement agreement between Schnitzer Northeast and the Attorney General’s Office and is administered by the AG’s Environmental Protection Division.
“For far too long, we have let cities such as Everett bear the brunt of environmental injustice without giving them resources to mitigate the effects, leaving our communities and residents to suffer without solutions,” said Campbell. “Today, by funding organizations striving to do this work in collaboration with local government and the community, we are beginning to right those wrongs. The Attorney General’s Office will continue to do our part to root out environmental injustices, protect our communities and promote clean air and a healthy environment for all.”
The Mystic River Watershed Association (MyWRA) will receive approximately $75,000 to fund the assessment and monitoring of air pollution and heat islands in and around an industrial area in southeastern Everett. The project will include collaboration with the Air Pollution Monitoring Lab at Tufts University to investigate the concentration, impacts and extent of air pollutants and ultrafine particles that can have a significant impact on a person’s health.
Everett Community Growers, Inc (ECG) will receive $25,000 to support MyWRA’s Everett project through community outreach and engagement, as well as for additional air quality assessment work MyWRA is separately conducting in a larger regional project. For the Everett project, the funds will be used to survey community members disproportionately impacted by poor air quality in the area with the goals of informing decision-making in the MyWRA project, increasing public awareness of the results and strategies to reduce exposure to air pollution, and working with the City of Everett to help identify solutions that mitigate health risks to residents.
“The combined impacts of air quality pollution and heat can have disastrous impacts on vulnerable populations,” said Patrick Herron, Executive Director, Mystic River Watershed Association. “We’re grateful to AG Campbell’s Office for making these funds available to study air quality in this industrialized area of Everett and engage residents about their concerns.”
“Everett Community Growers is thrilled to continue our work with the Mystic River Watershed Association and engage our community with resident-led decision making in Everett. ECG’s engagement team, made up of Everett residents and youth, will also be involved on this project, ensuring we have resident voices at the core of planning and decision making,” said Nicole Fina, Coalition Coordinator, Everett Community Growers, Inc. “We know our residents are concerned about air quality, especially due to climate change and we are looking forward to brainstorming impacts and developing solutions. We would like to thank the Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell for this opportunity and look forward to connecting in the future.”